1998 Web Suez Canal example essay topic

The Suez Canal The Suez Canal is an achievement that man has made and a great help through the entire world. This is one of many difficult tasks that man has done and completed. This was a big task and a big construction and was done many years ago. This canal only transported a little water and was not deep enough for ships or boats. The idea of liking the Mediterranean Sea and Red sea first occurred during the age of the pharaohs. The pharaoh dug the canal to link both seas but soon after the canal was neglected and eventually got filled in by silt.

Along came the Greeks and they dug the canal out again. Once again the canal was neglected and happen to fill in with silt again. The Romans dug it out a couple of times and then they too neglected the canal. Finally the Arab conquest of Egypt dug it for the last time.

During the French campaign of 1798, Napoleon thought of linking the two seas directly by means of navigation canal, but engineers did not support the idea of believing that the Red Sea level is nine meters higher than the Mediterranean. On November 30, 1854 the French engineer Ferdinand De-lesseps managed to sign a concession with the Egyptian government to dig the Suez Canal. On April 25.1859 the digging of the Canal began and continued for ten years. More than 1.5 million Egyptian workers took part, of which more than 125,000 lost their lives. November 17th, 1876 the inauguration of the Suez Canal came to be.

In July 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal after it had been an international company for about 87 years. The Suez Canals strategic importance lies in the fact that it is essential for world trade. It transports 14% of the total world trade, 26% of oil exports 41% of the total volume of goods and cargo that reach Arab Gulf ports. The Suez Canal saves 86% of the normal trip if used instead of going around the whole continent. The Egyptian government has always tried to make the best of what it can of the Suez Canal and trying to make it better for ships passing through. This way it is a lot easier for big ships to come through along with making it faster and safer.

At the present moment the Suez Canal can accommodate ships up to 500 meters long, 70 meters wide and a draught of 70 feet. Also every year more than 25,000 ships pass through the canal. The canal is a total of 100 miles long and surprisingly has no locks to accommodate the 9-meter drop. People have had dreams for over 4,000 years to build a canal that ships could transport good to other countries and to trade with other countries with out going so far out of the way. This is a dream come true for every one that uses the canal. Many people in the Middle East cant possibly think of what life would be like without the canal.

Suez Timeline. 1995. http: web Suez canal. Compton's Encyclopedia Online. 1998 web Suez Canal. Encyclopedia Britannica. 1998. web.